According to the US Department of Energy, commercial buildings account for 35 percent of US (and 40 percent of global) electricity consumption. Existing commercial buildings on average spend 30 percent of their operating budgets on operating costs and account for close to 20 percent of all global carbon emissions.
Today, the majority of all commercial building owners and managers recognize that energy efficiency retrofits have the potential to yield substantial savings on operating costs, while reducing a building's environmental footprint. However, considerable time and effort continues to be spent by industry specialists in the identification of the numerous barriers (rather than solutions) to accomplish retrofits on a large scale. Such barriers include, without limitation, lack of available capital, unproven returns on investment (or payback), split incentives between landlords and tenants, lack of technical expertise and continued trepidation from senior lenders.
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